The American Dream
In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, a major theme is the American Dream versus Gatsby's dream, the ideal dream, and the corruption and destruction of the dream. Fitzgerald reveals that the American Dream was transformed from a pure idea of security into a scheme of materialistic power. Through Gatsby, Fitzgerald showed the perseverance and hope the founding fathers had. Though the American Dream was corrupted, Gatsby's was not. It was the "foul dust" who were corrupted that ended Gatsby and his dream. Gatsby was living the dream purely, but the corrupted people in his life, like Tom and Daisy Buchanan, destroyed Gatsby's dream. The American Dream, which arose during the Colonial Period, developed in the 19th century. The dream was based on the assumption that each person, no matter his or her origin, could succeed on the sole basis of his or her own skill and effort. Gatsby lived the dream purely. He had the determination, creativity, inspiration, and the passion to achieve his goal. Even when he was poor, Gatsby saw himself as a rich, sophisticate and successful man. Gatsby's burning desire for Daisy's love symbolized the basis of the old dream: the ethereal goal and the never- ending search for t
The ideal dream was to make money through skill and effort. " Fitzgerald used George Wilson to show the common man struggling to achieve his own success within the modern world. He was constantly striving to get Daisy; from the moment he is seen reaching toward her house to the final days of his life, even staying outside her house at night to watch over her hours after she ended her affair with him. Gatsby was living the dream; he had the money and the parties, but in the end he was murdered, just like the wild lifestyles of the 1920's was followed by the Great Depression. At the end, Fitzgerald created a sense of helplessness to prove that the American Dream is dead with the execution of Gatsby's dream and Wilson's suicide. " When Gatsby realized Daisy's voice was full of money, he also realized he was not pursuing love, but cold hard wealth, hidden behind the disguise of a human face, Daisy's. When Gatsby died, any chance the American Dream had of surviving in the modern corrupted world died with him. The deaths of a rich man and a poor man, both pushing themselves towards the same impossible goal, symbolized the death of the original dream. His parties, mansion, and lavish clothing are all signs of his unknowing corruption.
Common topics in this essay:
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Daisy Gatsby,
George Wilson,
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Nick Caraway,
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